Review of Police, Adjective (2010) by V H — 17 Jan 2010

Cristi is a young Romanian cop investigating a small-time drug case. Every day after school, three kids stand behind a building smoking hash which one of the boys brings and shares with the others. Cristi suspects that the boy?s older brother is his supplier, but after a week of following the kid around, he?s unable to prove it. The captain wants him to just arrest the kid and get it over with, figuring he?ll rat out his brother, but Cristi doesn?t want to mess up the kid?s life over something he considers so trivial. Apparently, the penalty for dealing even a tiny amount of drugs in Romania is 3 ½ years, and this applies even if you?re just sharing a joint with friends.

That?s just about all there is to this movie, which is the antithesis of the typical car-chase and explosion-filled Hollywood version of a cop film. Many of the scenes take place in real-time and in some of these, absolutely nothing happens. Cristi spends ages standing outside of the kid?s house shifting his weight from one foot to another and smoking cigarettes to pass the time. I felt like I should be doing something to pass the time also, like a crossword puzzle maybe.

The scenes with dialogue are a welcome break from the silent tedium. Cristi and his out-of-shape partner have an amusing conversation in which he rebuff?s the partner?s request to join his weekly foot-tennis game saying he?s sure he?ll suck so badly that he?ll ruin it for everyone. At home, he makes fun of the metaphorical lyrics of the love song that his schoolteacher wife plays over and over. She corrects his grammar and points out that he?s been wearing the same sweater for days.

The longest scene ? the one from which the title is derived ? involves Cristi being forced by the captain to look up words in the dictionary and read the definitions aloud. Words like ?conscience?, ?moral?, ?law?, and ?police?. Cristi is refusing to arrest the kid, saying he doesn?t want it on his conscience, and the captain uses the dictionary to try to convince him that his job as a policeman is to enforce the law, not to moralize on it. It?s not really as boring as it sounds and managed to stop just short of making me lose my patience (noun, the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient).

Police, Adjective is certainly not for everyone. It?s about as real as real life can be and real life can be pretty damn boring, especially in small-town Romania. Though superficially, the film is just a lot of foot-shuffling and report-filing, at its core is the more engrossing story of a man struggling with a moral dilemma. Plus, it?s almost a shoo-in to win this year?s coveted Oscar for ?Best Performance by a Reference Book in a Supporting Role?.

Facetiousness, noun.